Wednesday September 21, 2011

I remember ss a little child wanting to plant a garden. Everyone in the little town of Seibert, Colorado seemed to be into gardening and I with my sister would sit on the back steps of our old house and eat tomatoes picked off the vines with lots of salt. I can still taste those red ripe tomatoes. When I was old enough to be apart of the process, my mom and dad let me do the planting. Before we could plant, we had to dig up the soil and break up the clods of dirt including picking out the weeds we had turned over before we could plant the seeds. We planted corn, beans, carrots, peas (I hated peas and could care less about planting peas), cucumbers, and watermelon. As a child, I thought that when I went out the next day, I would see the plants start peeking up through the soil. No such luck. Not the next day or the next or the next. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the roots had to begin to grow in order for the plant to grow. Without roots, the plant would have no way to nourish itself with water and nutrients and would never grow. The underneath the soil growth was critical for the above the soil growth to occur.

As I was reading in Isaiah, I saw this principle when he says, “Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.” (Isaiah 37:31 NIV). How many of us would love to see fruit being produced in our lives but we often become impatient with the process of God wanting to work first on our root system. You see the root system of our lives are qualities in our lives that are developed through trials and problems we experience every day (James 1:2-4). We live in a society where we want instant fruit. Instant money (credit cards). Instant relationships (match.com). Instant stuff (loans). We have gotten away from having to work for something and saving up before we get our desired thing. What Isaiah is saying is that true fruit and growth takes time and it starts internally with in us where no one sees. What is God seeking to develop in your root system for future growth and fruit? Are you being patient in allowing this root system to truly take root so that you can see fruit being developed upward?

On this journey, fruit is an outgrowth of the internal structures that have been allowed to develop in the quiet times and alone times of your life. Take the necessary time to allow your root system to grow to support the fruit you want to see being produced in your life.